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Memorization Works For State Educational Testing Standards But Does Little to Help Children Absorb, Assimilate, and Master Language and Math
A core difference in how the Montessori Method and Montessori school differs from public schools is in the teaching of sounds, letters, and writing.
Let’s say we want to teach the reading or spelling of the word ‘/m/-/a/-/t/’. In Montessori, when introducing the symbol of a sound, we teach how the sound is important…as is the symbol. The symbol ‘m’ visualizes the sound ‘m’. Thus, the symbol is an abstract concept when ultimately teaching the spelling--or reading--of the sound.
The first step in learning to read is conversation. A child must become interested in communicating. That is the first step in reading. In Montessori school, we seek a place of interest--the child’s thoughts are interesting. Kids won’t talk if no one is interested in listening to them. So, we’ll ask them, “What did you have for breakfast or how is your day?” We use words, words, words.
During the first year of the primary program, we play a word game. We’ll have a group lesson where we say, “I spy with my little eye something that starts with ‘m.’” There’s a group of objects on a table. Children must find and take the object (like a mug) and say what it is.
Invariably, they begin to identify. We work towards teaching beginning, middle, and end sounds—the sounds and symbols of all words. Montessori teachers spend months highlighting these abstract concepts of sound so that they become concrete in the child’s brain via individualized learning.
So, we’re teaching language concepts first and details later--all under the umbrella that each child learns at his or her chosen speed.
Counting the Montessori Way
Montessori teachers spend a lot of time counting. Painted number rods are used; for example, rods are painted in ten sections and children can count them. There’s a rod for 9 and a shorter rod for 8 and so forth--to 1. So, the child experiences quantity.
The student can hold 10 of something rather than one of something. For a three-year-old, the rods are sized in such a way that it’s easy to see that ten is bigger than one.
We do this long before we teach the symbol. A symbol is a representation of quantity.
Children can understand them when they value them. So, now we can show them a 7 or a 3 and they’ll learn that a value of 7 is larger than 3.
Math the Montessori Way
Multiplication is difficult. But it can be simplified concretely so that it makes sense to the child. Long before we get to multiplication, we make sure that children understand large quantities.
Since we’ll be multiplying thousands of numbers in kindergarten, we want to make sure children grasp what a thousand or a hundred is. We play games with children--asking them to fetch four thousand three hundred. They need to remember ‘4,300’ as they walk across the room and collect beads representing four one-thousands and three one-hundreds--in addition to the symbols of 4,000 and 300.
This process can take months until we can ask a child to fetch 4,672 and he or she can do so.
But, it is so important!
Why?
If a child is scratching his head asking himself ‘was that 400 or 4,000?’ then they aren’t doing the math problem--they are distracted. So, we only move forward when the child is ready.
We teach so much more than memorization via the Montessori Method. We want the child to understand the concept. So, we simplify things via visuals and touch, and memory. As a result, we ensure children understand large quantities via multiple senses.
In Montessori, when we talk about concepts, we spend time teaching ‘why’ we need to know it before we learn how to do it.
How we’re teaching the concept of something; for example, in math, the teacher will ask ‘What is a square?’ before teaching ‘What is the square root of a number?’ The elementary child will spend months building squares with pegs to understand how 625 pegs make a square of 25...long before they put that information to paper.
Or, in language, students are listening and learning about prepositions. They are encouraged to walk behind something or in front of something or on top of something or below something. In Montessori, we teach prepositions this way: ‘Which word shows us where things are? At first, children don’t know they’re dealing with prepositions. They simply know that words convey specific meaning. As they graduate to elementary, they are told the name ‘preposition,’ but now they truly understand its value in a sentence.
Or, how about teaching adjectives? We’ll ask, ‘Which word tells you the kind of cow; for example…a black or a spotted cow?’
If a child experiences what is a preposition, or, an adjective tells you how to describe things, it stays with them. Thus, we’re teaching concrete senses of a place or a sound or a description rather than memorization…teaching facilitates the totality of language.
The Montessori Difference v. Public School
When Montessori teachers talk about the difference between conceptual teaching versus public school memorization, surely kids can memorize multiplication and historical dates.
Here’s the difference: via the Montessori Method, we teach history by creating broader contextual connections.
We display and discuss all the things that were going on during a particular time in history, geography, architecture, art, fashion, and music. Our lessons focus on that time as an integrated whole...where people lived on the map; what they grew in their garden; what buildings looked like; looking at great paintings of that time; listening to the music of that era on harpsichord or piano or violin; and, displaying the clothing of that time.
As a result, the child absorbs a deeper understanding of that time.
As all schools teach, yes, the pilgrims landed on the Mayflower in 1620. But, more than a memorized date, Montessori curricula describes the times of what things were like. In other words, like ‘you are there.’
The Montessori Method teaches that it’s more impactful to connect the times rather than the components of memorized dates. And the difference is that Montessori is conceptually interconnected rather than just random dates, times, and places in time.,
Lifetime Montessori School in Santaluz serves 200 students from Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, Rancho Santa Fe, 4S Ranch, Del Sur, and the Carmel Valley communities.
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